After Deepground
by LoreilDarksky00
Summary: Deepground is finished. Vincent has returned and everyone has returned to their normal lives; they split up to move on. But Yuffie can't. No one understands what she needs. She has nowhere to go except the welcoming blackness she tries to find in death.
1. Chapter 1: This is why

Coldness. Darkness. Emptiness. Loneliness.

Gone. Everything's gone.

The world had been saved, but I don't feel the way I should.

Because my friends—my family—have all split up. Gone on with their lives.

I can't blame them for it; it's their choice. Their lives. And I don't.

But I do blame them for not thinking of me.

They all split up because they knew everyone had a life to go back to.

Or they thought they knew.

Because I don't. I don't have anything to go back to.

Godo has already disowned me. I'm banished from Wutai. I have nothing left.

But they don't know that, so it's not their fault.

For anything. Especially for what I've decided to do.

I'm sorry for it, but what else _can_ I do? I've nothing to live for.

No _one_. To live for.

Vincent… he left, too. Went back to Nibleheim.

He went to go finish "paying for his sins".

Bullshit.

I… I love him more than anything. And I already know, don't need to ask to find out, that the most he can care for me is as a sister.

But he still went back to his stupid coffin.

Everyone left me, thinking I'd be fine because I'm… I was princess of Wutai.

That is all I can think as I steady my knife on the center of my chest.

It doesn't matter that everyone was gathering again tomorrow—well, in a few hours; we were going to meet at 8:00 AM—to celebrate the anniversary of the world's saving.

Because when it's over, they'll all leave me again and I won't be able to handle it.

Better to end it now.

And I shove the knife through the center of my chest, and I don't make a sound.


	2. Chapter 2: This is what

_Because when it's over, they'll all leave me again and I won't be able to handle it._

_Better to end it now._

_And I shove the knife through the center of my chest, and I don't make a sound._

They worried. She didn't come like she said she would.

They worried.

He worried.

Vincent knows that she wanted everyone to be together again; she's the one who called him and had told him excitedly about it.

Pestered him until he promised he'd come.

Now she wasn't there.

Finally, no one could take it any longer.

Tifa and Cloud led the way to where she lived.

No one knew why she hadn't gone back to Wutai.

Hadn't bothered to ask.

Later they knew they should have.

When they'd gotten there, his heart had clenched painfully.

The door was open, and it was eerily silent.

When they saw her, Tifa screamed.

He could only stare, stunned, at the still form of the ninja.

At the blood that still flowed, sluggishly, from the wound in her chest.

The wound caused by the knife which she had shoved into her own chest.

He stood, frozen, as the others leapt into action, calling an ambulance, rushing to try to help.

He stood and stared as her blanked eyes stared back at him.

A solitary tear made its way out of her eye and down her cheek.

A dark, bloody tear.


	3. Chapter 3: This is when

When I wake up, I know that something's wrong.

If I can wake up, then I'm not dead.

I swear to myself. Then I wonder how I'm still alive. Even if I missed my heart with the dagger, I should have bled out.

Apparently I didn't.

Meaning that someone thought they were saving me.

I realize that my eyes are open, and I'm staring at a white ceiling. I can see people out of the corner of my eye but I don't look.

After a moment more, I sit up, slowly. I can feel bandages around my upper torso.

I wait a little longer. Then, "Why am I still alive?"

It was not what they were expecting.

I turn to look, and I see nothing but shocked faces. Even Cid looks unsettled.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Cloud asks finally, furiously and dangerously quiet.

I can feel a sudden rage in my chest, next to the already burning pain.

How dare he.

It was his fault. Their fault. All of them! They're the reason I'm still alive… the reason I had wanted to die in the first place.

If they care… like their "caring" now… why didn't they see it sooner?

I look blankly at him, but I don't reply. There's still some of the old me left, I guess. The defiant part.

He sighs, blue eyes vivid with frustration.

No one else can find any words to say. What _can_ a person say in this situation?

Surprisingly it was Vincent who found something.

"You're a fucking idiot."

I stare.

Vincent Valentine… Mr. I-don't-talk-and-I-_especially_-don't-curse… just said the word he always gives Cid the dark look for saying.

And then I laugh.

It's dark, empty, and I think it scares me more than it does them. Him.

Nothing scares Him.


	4. Chapter 4: This is how

_And then I laugh._

_ It's dark, empty, and I think it scares me more than it does them. Him._

_ Nothing scares Him._

I'm still laughing, like I'm insane. Nothing makes sense. Am I really alive? Or is this my hell?

And then…

I feel myself pulled into an embrace…

I keep my eyes closed. I don't want to see who it is, though I already know and doubt it, because if I do I will cry.

I look anyways.

I see red.

It's enough.

The laughter becomes hysterical, and then turns to loud sobs.

I don't want them here.

I don't want them to see me like this.

Vincent simply holds me, and I feel lost but safe. Lonely but comforted.

Terrified but secure.

I'm confused. Nothing makes sense… why is Vincent hugging me? Why did he say what he did? Why is everyone here?

Why do they care about me, the brat… the one who probably messed up their lives?

I feel myself shaking, and my chest begins to throb with a sharp, lancing fire. I cry, and I can't hold it in. The pain is too much for me to take in silence.

But somehow they all seem to realize—finally—that I'm over the edge… and barely hanging onto the hand stretched out to me at last.


End file.
